“The Gates of Heaven”
Press release
March 6–June 29, 2009
Visions of the World
in Ancient Egypt
Napoleon Hall
Funerary stela of the Lady Taperet,
Stuccoed and painted wood, H. 31 cm; W. 29
cm; Th. 2.6 cm. Uncertain provenance,
probably Theban region, Dynasty 22–25, c.
850–690 B.C. Musée du Louvre, Paris, E 52-N
3663 © 2008 Musée du Louvre / Georges
Poncet
This exhibition is sponsored by the
Total Foundation and by Deloitte
With France 2, RTL, Metro and evene.fr
as media partners
In association with Metrobus
Musée du Louvre /
Communications
Aggy Lerolle
[email protected]
Press relations
Céline Dauvergne
+33 (0)1 40 20 84 66 / 54 52 (fax)
[email protected]
Total Foundation
Claudine Colin Communication
Claudine Colin
+33 (0)1 42 72 60 01
[email protected]
In the language of the ancient Egyptians, “the gates of heaven”
refers to the doors of a sanctuary housing the statue of a
divinity. Symbolizing a portal to another world, this expression
was also used to refer to other passageways between the
different building blocks of the universe as conceived by the
Egyptians. This exhibition therefore invites visitors on a journey
through spaces demarcated by gates of heaven, which for the
ancient Egyptians implied a host of conditions or limitations
affecting all who would seek to move through them. It is
important to remember that in many languages the same word
is used for the sky, the expanse of space perceived from the
Earth, and heaven, the divine dimension. As visitors follow the
exhibition’s itinerary, including more than 300 works, most of
which belong to the collections of the Louvre, supplemented by
some 70 masterpieces on loan from major European collections
of Egyptian antiquities (some of which have never been shown
before in France), they will venture forth on a cycle akin to a
segment of eternity, assimilating their exploration to a moment
in the perpetual movement of the universe, a fundamental
concept in ancient Egypt.
This exhibition of Egyptian antiquities is highly unusual: instead of
focusing on a specific site or an aspect of Egyptian culture, it turns
its gaze on particular places or viewpoints (organized around the
theme of the sanctuary), through representations of these places,
themselves borne by objects discovered in the actual or virtual
places evoked. Four such places or viewpoints, which remained
constant over the 5,000 years of Egyptian civilization explored in
the exhibition, delineate its itinerary. A repertory of shapes, signs
and symbols is associated with each place, which may then be
evoked in other spaces. The objects displayed date from the Old
Kingdom through the Roman period.
In order to understand the concept of the exhibition, one needs to
appreciate the ancient Egyptian mindset, entering, if only for a brief
moment, its fascinating and many-sided mental universe: this art of
profuse juxtapositions, far from Cartesian dualism, combines
material elements with a world inaccessible to ordinary mortals, as
suggested both by the title of the exhibition and the sanctuary itself,
which although built by human beings is the repository of the
divine. The exhibition’s deconstruction of the sanctuary provides a
genuine window into this civilization, a physical melding of time
and space.
By offering a perspective on these various places through their
representations and artistic production, the exhibition embarks on a
hunt for signs, symbols and iconography, emphasizing the play of
references and pointing up contrasts. One of its main objectives is to
return objects familiar to visitors to their appropriate social,
religious and artistic contexts, thus showing the diversity of this art
form, mistakenly considered as fixed and immutable, its ability to
effortlessly adapt to changes over the ages.
Exhibition curator: Marc Etienne, curator, Department of
Egyptian Antiquities, Musée du Louvre.
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The motivations behind The Gates of Heaven are the result of recent findings by Egyptologists running counter
to many received notions, which continue to be disseminated by textbooks and other non-academic works
intended for wider audiences. The aim of the exhibition is to offer a perspective on ancient Egypt very different
from that which we feel we know so well.
This subject matter is given a thematic presentation encompassing the entire exhibition. The museographic
itinerary has been conceived so as to reinforce the visitor’s experience of this journey through places familiar to
the ancient Egyptians: it is therefore composed of particular domains, precisely marked off by the very
configuration of the exhibition space in the Napoleon Hall. These places are separated from one another by
transitional zones, assuming the role of passageways between worlds, indicated by a work representative of the
space to which it serves as the introduction. This passageway serves both as a strong demarcation and as an
educational pause in which one finds a panel explaining the theme developed. The passageway’s purpose is to
convey and reinforce the concept of the exhibition and to encourage the visitor to explore it dynamically.
Each place has its own museographic setting with a distinctive architectural vocabulary, with its own
atmosphere—colored, bathed in light, or encircled by shadows and darkness—depending upon its physical or
symbolic characteristics. Special emphasis has therefore been placed on lighting as an aspect of the exhibition
design, guiding the visitor in his or her exploration of these worlds and recalling the importance of the Sun and
its radiance for the ancient Egyptians.
Upon entering the rotunda, the visitor is greeted by a stone sanctuary from the Temple of Isis at Philae. This
sanctuary sums up the various aspects considered and divided among each of the quadrants of the exhibition
space within Napoleon Hall. This particular sanctuary’s gates of heaven have not survived, offering the visitor a
direct view into the divine space embodied by the recessed area that once held the statue. The space underneath
contains a representation of heaven underpinned by the image of the pharaoh. This vertical structure—Earth,
ruler, heaven, divinity—is the reflection of the structure of the Egyptian universe.
I/ The Universe: Sanctuary of the Gods
This first section deals with the principles according to which the universe is established and in particular those
of the two eternities: Earth’s longevity and the immutable cycle of the stars. It delves into the creation of the
world through the main accounts and myths, particularly those presenting light and sound as the vehicles for the
birth of the universe. It is important to note that for the ancient Egyptians a word is the equivalent of an image
and its mental or oral expression is an act of creation. The presence of gods on Earth and their representation
through the figure of the pharaoh is also illustrated in this section. The establishment of perpetual cycles and
the two gods associated with them, Ra and Osiris, are treated by way of iconography
and divine emblems. This section closes with the western gate of heaven, the
“Beautiful West”, the last passageway on the Sun’s daily journey. For human beings,
two invisible portals have a very perceptible impact: the Sun rises in the East and
sets in the West, beginning its plunge into the underworld. Egyptian necropolises are
always located to the West so that the dead may be carried away into the Sun’s cycle
of resurrection.
II/ Heaven Underground: The Mysterious Afterlife
The daily cycle of the Sun’s regeneration and rebirth in the afterlife is associated
with the doors of the sanctuary, closed at night, and the room in which it is
contained, shrouded in darkness until the next morning. This afterlife traversed by
the Sun during the night and by human beings when they pass away, is structured as
a series of spaces, by turns hostile and pleasurable, accessed through portals attended
by their guardians. This section presents the various conceptions of
Sarcothese spaces and the representation of their topography and
phagus of
inhabitants, including the one at the heart of this underworld: the
the Lady
abode of Osiris. Funerary papyri and representations included in
Tanhetep
(open view),
sarcophagi (notably that of Sopi, containing an extremely complex
Diorite, D
depiction of the afterlife) are displayed here in connection with the
39, Musée
definition of these spaces and developments over the period
du Louvre
examined in the funerary concepts of ancient Egyptians. Among the
© 2006
Musée du
features of this section is the reminder that the purpose of
Louvre /
mummification was to make of the body an inviolable entity, thus
Georges
transformed into a sanctuary itself.
Poncet
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III/ Entry and Exit: The Tomb’s Chapel
The tomb’s chapel is a specifically delimited earthly space, considered as a “heaven on Earth”. The
passageway between the worlds of the dead and the living, it is highly evocative of the divine sanctuary.
The reopening of the gates of heaven each morning marks the return of the light and is, in this sense, a
rebirth, a reawakening. Coming out during the daytime is for the deceased the purpose of eternal life, just as
the Sun rises each day with renewed strength and vigor. The tomb’s chapel located on Earth is, for those
inhabiting the underworld, a heaven towards which they must ascend. Like the sanctuary, it contains an
object of worship. This section presents the various elements that may be found near and within the chapel,
taking into consideration an often neglected component: the price of these materials. Despite what we might
think, the sarcophagus, even at its most ornate, is not the most costly element. In all cases, the most
expensive object found in an Egyptian tomb is the Book of the Dead, a genuine indicator of the wealth of its
inhabitant (its price being the equivalent of more than six months’ wages), which immortalizes the ideal life
of the deceased. It also illustrates an essential role of this type of monument, which is to maintain the link
with the living and perpetuate the legacy of the deceased. In this way, the deceased is not forgotten and
remains anchored in the social reality of the living.
IV/ The Gates of Heaven: At the Temple Entrance
The monumental entrance of the temple, at the heart of which is found the sanctuary, marks the boundary
between public and sacred spaces. These gates of heaven may be seen by everyone but, in ancient Egypt,
only the priest could penetrate within the temple. For this reason the open-air vestibule in front of this
entrance is a favored location for approaching the divine and removing obstacles separating the divinity
from believers, thus establishing a direct contact that would otherwise be impossible: the idea is to spur
dialogue with the sacred being behind the closed doors of the sanctuary, in particular by offering a
representation of the divinity that can only be imperfect (as the god or goddess has no particular
appearance, he or she has them all, hence the composite images), a reflection in the other world, that
populated by human beings.
Statues used as votive offerings show an astonishing variety of approaches to this appropriation of the
sacred. They are brought together here in a thematic presentation of this space at the limits of two worlds,
through representations of the sanctuary itself or of the divine statue, which must remain a complete
mystery, anonymous and unknowable, or instead of the royal and private statues associated with the
mercies expected to be received in return from the sacred world. Some royal figures had themselves
represented seated, waiting for their wish to be fulfilled, or else holding out their hand so that passers-by
could present offerings: they thus saw themselves as intermediaries between gods and humans. The
juxtaposition of varied types of statuary as well as differing inscriptions underscores the change and
development in mindsets, in particular with respect to the intensity of the personal connection with the
divinity. This section is designed to help visitors understand the special status of images, which are symbols
first and foremost. They are used in a highly elaborate fashion both as real images in actual life and within
an idealized virtual world. The establishment of this virtual system, providing a measure of the complexity
of Egyptian thought, was a source of great fascination for the Greeks.
The visitor then exits through the door leading to the rotunda housing the sanctuary as if he or she had
passed through these gates of heaven after having completed a journey that the Egyptians considered as a
segment of eternity.
Left: Seated statue of Ptames,
Quartzite,
N1790,
Museo
Archeologico Nazionale, Florence
© Soprintendenza archeologica
per la Toscana – Firenze
Right: Cube statue of Kha,
Quartzite, A 65, Musée du Louvre
© 2001 Musée du Louvre /
Georges Poncet
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Related events and publications
Stela fragment depicting Osiris and his
sisters,
Limestone, Ap 37, Rijksmuseum van
Oudheden, Leiden © Rijksmuseum van
Oudheden
Seti II
seated,
Sandstone,
New
Kingdom,
Dynasty 19,
1279–1213
B.C., EA
26, British
Museum,
London
© The
Trustees of
the British
Museum
Visitor information:
Place
Napoleon Hall, Musée du Louvre
Press opening
Tuesday, March 3, 2009, from 2:30 p.m. to
5:30 p.m.
Hours
Open daily except Tuesdays, from 9 a.m.
to 8 p.m. and until 10 p.m. on Wednesdays
and Fridays
Publications
- Exhibition catalogue Les Portes du Ciel. Visions du monde
dans l’Egypte ancienne, edited by Marc Etienne, co-published
by Musée du Louvre Editions and Somogy
- Exhibition album, by Marc Etienne, co-published by Musée du
Louvre Editions and Somogy
The publication of these two works was made possible with
the support of ArjoWiggins.
- Objets d’Egypte. Des rives du Nil aux bords de Seine. An
archaeological itinerary, edited by Guillemette Andreu-Lanoë,
co-published by Musée du Louvre Editions and Le Passage
- Le poignard égyptien dit « du Gebel el-Arak », by Elisabeth
Delange, “Solo” collection, co-published by Musée du Louvre
Editions and Somogy
- L’Egypte ancienne, by Sophie Labbé-Toutée, “L’histoire au
musée” collection, co-published by Musée du Louvre Editions
and Hachette Jeunesse
Events in the Auditorium du Louvre
- Conference presenting the exhibition by Marc
Etienne, Monday, March 9 at 12:30 p.m.
- Related films
The Tomb of Perneb at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Le
dernier regard : portrait du Fayoum. L’Européenne, Friday,
March 13 at 12:30 p.m.
- “La Chaire du Louvre”: a new academic lecture series
Ancient Egypt: Between Historical Account and Science
A series of five lectures by Professor Jan Assmann, on Monday
May 4, Thursday May 7, Monday May 11, Thursday May 14,
and Monday May 18, all at 7 p.m.
This year, the Louvre launches a new major event focusing on
recent developments in art history research.
With the support of Laboratoires Septodont and its
president, Henri Schiller.
Within the exhibition
Multimedia guide for family visits
An itinerary designed for children and adults invites them to
explore ancient Egypt, guided by commentaries on a selection
of the works displayed.
Admission fees
The Gates of Heaven exhibition only: €11
Permanent collections + The Gates of
Heaven exhibition: €14 before 6 p.m., €12
after 6 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays
Free admission for youths under 18, the
unemployed, and holders of the “Louvre
Jeunes”, “Louvre Professionnels”, “Louvre
Enseignants”,
“Louvre
Etudiants
Partenaires” or “Amis du Louvre” cards.
In cell 7 at the group reception desk (under the Pyramid)
Film at the Louvre: La Pyramide du roi Djoser à Saqqarah,
Directed by Stan Neuman, 2008, 26 min. co-produced by Arte,
Les Films d’Ici and the Louvre, “Architectures” series. From
March 2 to June 29, daily except Tuesdays and Sundays:
showings at 4:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m., and in the evening on
Wednesdays and Fridays, at 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m.
Available on DVD and broadcast on Arte: June 2009
Further information: +33 (0)1 40 20 53 17
www.louvre.fr
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